


Lucky Star

by Burning_Up_A_Sun



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Forbidden Forest, Gen, Potions, draco/harry implied - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 05:19:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4653837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burning_Up_A_Sun/pseuds/Burning_Up_A_Sun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Only Luna would get so distracted when she's supposed to be gathering potions supplies. But Luna's not really as airheaded as every thinks, is she.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lucky Star

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the RS Games Inter-Team activity on LJ--ficlet, unbeta'd. The challenge; Use the mix-and-match lists to create prompts for a random pairing and create a quick sketch or ficlet, based on the first letters of my first name/last name and the month i was born. Genius!

“Star light. Star bright. First star I see tonight…”

Luna stood at the fringe of the Forbidden Forest, eyes closed and fingers steepled as she chanted the words.

“Miss Lovegood.” Professor Slughorn sighed, a deep, shoulder-slumping sigh. “What is it this time?”

Luna opened her eyes and studied him, her head tilted. “Professor, have you been checked for Wrackspurts? If you like, when we get back to the castle, I can get my Spectrespecs…”

He really didn’t look good, Luna noticed. That sigh. Dejected. Forlorn. A tiny bit frustrated? She’d have to think about it a bit more. Maybe he was infested with—

“Miss Lovegood, you are meant to be locating toadstools, not staring at the stars or worrying about Wrackspurts…”

Slughorn gritted his teeth as he spoke to her. In all of his years teaching, no one—not one single students—had rendered him as irritated and befuddled to the point of speechlessness. If Dumbledore had never found him, he’d be reclining on a warm, white-sand beach, possibly in the Muggle city of Rio De Janero. Or Nassau in the Bahamas. Not on the fringe of the Forbidden Forest. At dusk. In October. In Scotland. Perhaps once, just once, he could Imperious this child, get her to do what he asked. If the Wizengamot met her, they’d understand why he’d done it—

“Look!”

He followed her finger. He looked. He saw nothing. Tree branches, thin and spindly, high in the oak tree. He saw the sky, darker now as day gave way to night. He saw a pinprick of light. The evening star.

“There!” Luna took his hand and pointed it at the sky. “Hermione says, that every night, when the Muggles see the first star, they say this prayer:

_Star light._

_Star bright_

_First star I see tonight._

_I wish I may._

_I wish I might._

_Have this wish I wish tonight.”_

 

Hermione had told her that she had to close her eyes and steeple her fingers as she said it, or the prayer wouldn’t work.

Slughorn rubbed his forehead, hoping it might make his headache better. He knew what would make it better. Ending this junket for toadstools for the Potions course, and sitting snug and warm in front of his fireplace, with a glass of that lovely brandy that he’d acquired last year…

“Did you make a wish, Professor Slughorn? I hope you wished your Wrackspurts away.” Luna smiled, her body radiating peace and happiness. Not in the least worried about her empty basket at her feet.

She lowered her voice and drew closer to Slughorn. “Some people think that stars are burning suns. But really, the fairies from the fairy lights bring their extra light up to the sky each day. That’s why you can’t see them when it’s daytime.” She nodded, happy to share this fact with him. “There’s an article in The Quibbler this month. The fairies—“

Slughorn interrupted her, his head aching too much to pretend to listen to one of her extended ‘scientific’ explanations. It hurt to even think ‘scientific’ and ‘Lovegood’ in the same sentence. “What did you wish for?”

“Me? For my friends to find true love, of course.”

She looked over to Harry and Draco, arguing about the difference between toadstools and mushrooms. Everyone assumed those two despised each other, but she saw the way they fancied each other when no one was looking. People thought she was a numpty, an airhead, but that only made her smile, because when people pretended she wasn’t there, they said things. Did things they wouldn’t do unless they were alone.

Professor Slughorn shrugged at her simplistic wish. Maybe she was on to something. He _did_ prefer a glass of Brandy over company these days.

“Oh!” Luna squealed as she pointed further into the Forest. “Is that mistletoe? I’ll find you some Nargles…” Luna picked up her empty basket and wandered away, singing in her whispy voice. “You must be my lucky star, ‘cause you shine on me where ever you are…”

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from the ancient Madonna song, Lucky Star. [Lucky Star by Madonna](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ii_AQ7u0H4)


End file.
